Regulatory Cliff Looms, Deals Slow

According to a recent Deloitte online poll, general uncertainty is the biggest challenge executives expect related to the fiscal cliff in 2013.

“Even though markets responded immediately to the fiscal cliff deal, there is still more work to be done,” says David Williams, chief executive officer, Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP. “Uncertainty, like pending regulations implementing Dodd-Frank and drafting debt ceiling legislation, as well as leadership changes in Congress and the SEC may drive down deal volume. Companies may also increase internal investigations in anticipation of more aggressive regulatory enforcement to come.”

In additional to fiscal cliff uncertainty, other challenges that survey respondents anticipate the global economy will face in 2013 include the European debt crisis (27.8 percent) and China’s economy (9.4 percent). Nearly three-fourths (73.6 percent) say the sluggish global economy has already impacted their businesses and 6.5 percent expect impacts to come.

“As the Eurozone sinks deeper into recession and China’s growth slows, we need to remember that their economies — just like many others—are closely tied to America’s,” Williams continues. “Whether or not U.S. companies export and have operations overseas, we’ve already seen that fluctuations in one market can send shockwaves globally that tend to drive dealmakers to the sidelines amidst economic uncertainty.”

Respondents were torn on the topic of U.S. economic recovery in 2013 with nearly as many expecting improvement in 2013 (47.5 percent) as not expecting it (44.2 percent).

More than 1,700 professionals from industries including financial services; consumer and industrial products; and technology, media and telecommunications responded to polling questions during a December 2012 webcast, titled “The Election is Over: Where Do We Go From Here?”